Tonight we met my husband’s college friend for dinner at Jimmy V’s. Its way on the other side of town and we were running a bit late and didn’t have time to drop off Rufus. He went with us to run some errands this afternoon so he had to go to dinner with us. I really didn’t want to leave him in the car and lucked out because Jimmy V’s had a patio. We ate outside and Rufus joined us! He was really well behaved and everyone lavished attention all over him. Everyone but our waitress. She was afraid of him and gave us terrible service. She wouldn’t even bring our plates over to the table and Rufus was no where near where she would have to approach the table. Needless to say she got almost NO tip. What a joke – How could anyone be afraid of this smooshy face?

Literally look at what is hanging around! I have a stray cat (Miss Kitty) that hangs out around here. She is a feral stray and we can not even get close to her. But Miss Kitty and I have an understanding, she leaves my trash intact and I feed her. This little arrangement has been working out very well for us up until the past week. The food I was leaving out for her and lasting all day suddenly was gone almost instantly. My trash has started being rummaged through again and strewn about my porch. I just couldn’t imagine that she was eating all that food and if she had a new buddy, the two of them couldn’t devour that quantity at such breakneck speeds.

Tonight I had to go out really late for dog and cat food and on my way in I found out what is really going on. We have an interloper. One of those masked bandits has staked out our house and targeted us for kitty food theft. I caught him on my porch, technically above my porch but I caught him none the less. Brutus spotted him hanging from the side of the house for dear life. I cautiously went inside and waited. I waited almost 45 minutes and I peeked out the front door and he was still there grasping on to the log walls. Apparently he was raiding our trash and when he heard the dog coming up to the door he climbed up my wall and is hovering there for his dear life. I have no idea how I will get him down and supose he will just have to get tired on his own and either fall into the box or climb down on his own. Lord knows I am not touching a wild coon. They are nasty and can carry rabies. At least I know it wasn’t Miss Kitty that reneged on our arrangement.

I found the first nasty bugger today. I knew it wouldn’t be long until they reared their nasty little blood sucking heads since we have had a couple of consecutive sunny days in the 70°s. I always dread April. April showers… try April ticks. They are everywhere! Even with Frontline on the dogs I still seem to find them. I guess that is one of the downsides of living rural on acreage that has alot of mature vegetation. They fall from the trees are in the brush.. ugg! Today I found one on ME! It fell out of the trees on me when I went to my car. I about had a conniption.

I don’t Frontline my guys from about October til tick season starts in early April.. I hate the idea of chemicals on them. But around here, we have no choice in the spring. It will last about 2 months then it will die down and we wont see any of the disgusting little buggers until the next spring. So, needless to say everyone got their Frontline doses tonight.